24Jun: Still not so happy with neck, so I threaded a ribbon around the top to cinch it in… pretty!

17Jun: Had it finished but the neck showed the cast off edge from the front piece because the directions have you pick up stitches from the wrong side. ugly! So, I ripped out 11 inches of knitting! To fix: The holder stitches in the back and sides are knit from the wrong side as in the pattern(so that the cowl is reverse stockinette), but when you get to the front where you have to pick up stitches, turn the sweater so that now the right side was facing me, and knitted backwards (knit left to right instead of right to left) to pick up the stitches in the front so that they were right side out. This means that the front is one row behind in reverse stockinette, but it doesn’t matter at all. A neat little trick, and I think it will work.

The color is fantastic -- but it’s going to be itchy! For once, a pattern with longer sleeves than my arms. Wow!